58 Commentaries and Nibandhas
- Commentaries and Nibandhas ( digests )
The literature on Dharmaśāstra falls into three well marked but somewhat over-lapping periods. The first period is that of the ancient dharmasūtras and of the Manusmrti. It is a period dating from at least the 6th century B. C. to the beginnings of the Christian era. Next comes the period when most of the versified smrtis were composed and it ranges from the first centuries of the Christian era to about 800 A. D. The third period is that of the commentators and the writers of digests. This covers over a thousand years from about the 7th century to 1800 A. D. The first part of this last period was the golden era of famous commentators. Commentaries on smrti works continued to be written almost to the end of this period, e. g. Nandapandita wrote the commentary called Vaijayanti on the Viṣṇudharmasūtra in the 17th century. But the general tendency from the 12th century onwards was
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688 अभये प्रत्यये दाने उपस्थानेथ दर्शने । पंचस्वेव प्रकारेषु ग्राह्योपि प्रतिभूर्बुधैः ॥
Palao. 887 दानार्थे वा धनार्थे वा धर्मार्थे वा विशेषतः। आदाने वा विसर्गे वा न स्त्री
स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति ॥ स्मृतिच० ; विधवा यौवनस्था चेनारी भवति कर्कशा ।
314: TUTTE g Trai Titazi aar li facto on 9. II. 135. 688 भार्याया व्यभिचारिण्याः परित्यागो न विद्यते । दद्यात्पिण्डं कुचेलं च पश्यों
च शाययेत् ॥ स्मृतिच..
Y5 II
FOUNDED
546
to write works not professing to be commentaries on a parti cular smṛti, but works that were in the nature of digests containing a synthesis of all the dicta of smrti writers on topics of dharma. Examples of this class of works are the Kalpataru, the Smṛticandrikā, the Caturvargacintāmaṇi, the Ratnākaras of Candeśvara. Even when in the earlier part of this period writers professed to compose only commentaries on particular works, they adopted the style of digests trying to introduce order out of a chaotic mass of Smrti dicta and explaining away apparent contradictions. For example, Viśvarūpa’s commentary (in the ācāra and prāyaścitta sec tions ), the Mitāksarā and Aparārka’s work, though professing to be commentaries on Yājśavalkya, are really in the nature of digests. In fact there is no hard and fast line of demarca tion between a tikā and a nibandha ( digest). Vijñānesvara is described by the Dvaitanirṇaya of Śhaṅkara bhatta as the most eminent of all writers of ribandha8.. Therefore, though it is usual to speak of the third period as one of commenta tors and nibandhakāras, there is no necessity in this work to observe any sharp line of distinction between the two. In the following pages a few prominent and typical commentators and nibandhakāras who have written on all or most of the branches of dharmaśāstra and whose works have attained classical rank will be dealt with in chronological order as far as that can be done with any accuracy.